


Acting Captain

by Briana_Dubs



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angry Khan, Captain Kirk taken literally, F/M, Hitting, Khirk, M/M, Pirate!AU, Slash, Star Trek Navy, Well - Freeform, Yelling, and angry sex, angry Kirk, because it will all happen, enjoy the, hormonal Kirk, i'm doing it now, nobody's done this one yet have they?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-17 22:32:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4683791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briana_Dubs/pseuds/Briana_Dubs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Star Fleet Navy forces have sent Captain Kirk and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise to attempt to find a running fugitive. Of course, they find him. But not without having a terrible battle on the raging seas against a squad of Klingons. And not without receiving help... from the very criminal they were trying to find? Acting Captain Kirk didn't like this. His prisoner had to have an ulterior motive. Is Kirk strong enough to fight off his prisoner? Is Kirk even sure he is a prisoner?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opener/Surrender

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't keep myself from making an actual Pirate au of Into Darkness. With quite the divergence in the story line... Hope nobody minds, but I am a khirk shipper.

 

                “Captain, they’re about to ram us!” The short man with crisp black hair shouted.

                “I can see that, officer Sulu!” shouted acting Captain James Kirk. Snapping his head, Kirk shouted to the man nearest him, a taller man with crisp black hair and pointed ears. “Spock, what are our options!?”

                First mate Spock had been scribbling on one of his many parchments. Somehow even with the wind and rain he still managed to hold the paper and keep his words somewhat legible. “Our options are limited captain, we cannot fight and we cannot flee.”

                “Then we have no options!” Kirk snapped, spinning the splintery wooden wheel hard to the left.

                Another member of the crew, pushing through all the other naval officers and rushing up to where the captain steered, “We have one,” the slim woman said, “I can talk to them. They might not kill us if you let me speak to them.”

                “Uhura, these are Klingons!” Kirk shouted back, steering the ship towards a neutral island, “We’re not supposed to be here and they fuckin know it!”

                Uhura shoved herself into his field of vision, staring him down. If there wasn’t so much wind and rain and screaming she would have had his completely undivided attention. “You brought me on this voyage because I speak their language,” she spat in his face, “Let me speak to them.”

                Looking at First mate Spock, Kirk huffed. Turning toward his crew, he shouted orders and announced to everyone who would actually listen. “Listen up! We’re going to stop at that island! We’re going to try talking with them, maybe we can explain what happened! Should anything go wrong I want every hand on deck with a weapon or at a cannon to aid us. This could go wrong very fast!” Pointing toward one of his youngest crewmembers, Kirk barked, “Chekov! I want you helping Mr. Scott to make sure the pumps don’t malfunction! You got that?”

                “Aye keptin!” the young boy replied, rushing out of the wind and rain and down into the bowels of the ship.

                Steering hard, fighting the storm, Kirk shouted only when he needed to. They were going to land on that island whether the Klingons were willing or not.

                Luck seemed to be on their side, for when they began to disembark from their ship the storm subsided in her fury. The winds calmed and the rain halted. Uhura stepped forward and began trying to reason with the beasts. Kirk held tight to his holstered sword, just in case things got ugly.

                And boy did they. One of the tallest Klingons grabbed hold of Uhura’s face. Before anybody could move to do anything else, said Klingon was suddenly shot down, falling dead. Uhura fell out of his grasp and all hell broke loose. Shots were fired from everywhere, swords were pulled out and thrashed together. Kirk vaguely saw a masked figure in the fight, firing at the Klingons, helping them. He didn’t know who he was. What was this?

                Throwing a very heavy Klingon down to the ground and stabbing into his chest, Kirk was knocked to the ground. He hadn’t seen the other one behind him. Fuck!

                Turning over as fast as he could, Kirk was ready to jump out of the path of a sword. But the Klingon was shot through the chest before he could do a thing. Scrambling out of the way of the falling body, Kirk quickly looked in the direction the bullet came. The masked man was still pointing his gun that way. He had saved him? Why?

                Kirk didn’t move. He laid there, watching in amazement as the masked figure twisted his arm around, firing three rounds toward oncoming enemies, yanking his sword free and slashing a Klingon that approached him from the opposite side. He spun himself around and fired again, taking the already injured Klingon down. He saw him toss his gun aside- out of bullets, and Kirk watched the man grab a gun from and use it on a Klingon. He bludgeoned another one and shot one that was trying to stop Spock from reaching Uhura. Kirk vaguely saw cannon fire from the direction of his ship shooting around him, but his attention was very focused on other things. The masked figure knocked a Klingon to the ground, tripping it with the gun he had stolen. He proceeded to throw his sword and impale another, rushing toward it. Yanking his sword back out, he then stabbed one of the last Klingons left through the neck. Grabbing its gun from beside its body, he stormed to where Kirk lay and where Spock and Uhura were trying to help him up.

                Kirk was certain this man was going to kill them. But instead he stood before them, looking down at the two crouching people. Spock stood beside them, pointing a gun at him.

                The man yanked the fabric from in front of his face, looking down at the captain. His face was pale, his eyes were cold and icy blue, and his face was all sharp angles, culminating with high prominent cheekbones. Kirk knew exactly who he was now.

                “How did you find me here?” the man shouted looking down at him, “Who gave you my location?!”

                Spock shouted next to his captain, “Stand down!” Instead, the pale man shot the gun out of Spock’s hands.

                “What happened to my crew?!” the man shouted, deep voice straining with rage. “Where are they!?”

                Kirk only looked at him, jaw rotating, thoughts churning. Spock spoke. “In custody,” he said, making the man look at him, “Presuming you are the fugitive Khan Noonien Singh.”

                A look of horror slowly came over his face. Tossing his gun to the ground near Spock, the man sank to his knees. “I surrender.” So this was Khan.

                Pushing himself to his feet, Kirk grunted with the pain. “On behalf of all the people you and your crew murdered, I accept your surrender,” he hissed. Then he proceeded to punch the criminal straight in the face.

                Uhura shrieked at him in surprise. “Captain!”

                Kirk pulled back, looking down at Khan. Instead of seeing a man grimacing with pain, he saw a defiant criminal glaring up at him, face completely unmarred. His glare twisted with a vicious smile and Khan whispered out lowly, “ _Captain_ …”


	2. Nervous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just trying this one out... I think this chapter had spelling errors. There were a lot.

 

                Kirk personally walked the prisoner down into one of the cells. He had a few officers with him, but he didn’t trust leaving this man alone before he was locked up. He needed to keep his eye on him. Any moment this man could try and get the upper hand.

                Three of his officers had removed the thick, multi-leveled robe the prisoner had been wearing. Didn’t want to risk him hiding a weapon in there. Underneath his outfit was a simple black top and black trousers. It wasn’t loose, either, like Kirk’s white undershirt was, so there was no possibility he had anything more than a dagger hidden in there. (He didn’t even have that. His officers checked.) Kirk didn’t understand why this criminal was so lightly armed. He was a murderer- he should have been loaded with guns and blades of all sorts.

                Kirk kept looking him over as they walked. As if the next time his eyes looked there would suddenly be a gun in his hands or a sword tucked in his pants. This didn’t feel right…

                The ship’s doctor quickly met up with him once the fugitive was locked up. Kirk turned and looked at him. “Bones,” he said, nodding his head a little, “I take it everyone in the landing party’s unhurt?”

                Bones nodded. “Yeah, all accounted for. No broken bones. Few scrapes and close calls with some of those swords and bullets, though…” the dark haired doctor turned his head toward the prisoner. “So what’s going on with this one, then? Some kinda superman?”

                Kirk frowned. He noticed as Bones asked that the ship wasn’t moving yet. His crew should know that Spock was to steer them away even without him at the helm. They knew where he was. They knew what was going on. So why weren’t they moving?

                “Took out a whole flock of Klingons pretty much singlehandedly,” Kirk said, trying to distract from the fact that they were standing still. Bones whistled, fully turning toward the prisoner. “Name’s Khan. The one we were sent to find…”

                Khan lifted his gaze and stared at the two of them through the bars. “Should I do a medical exam?” Bones asked, looking at his captain. Kirk didn’t really see why not. Bones went right ahead and started patting Khan down. He was checking for bruises and cuts and any possible injures under the surface.

                “Why aren’t we moving, Captain?” the criminal asked, turning his gaze back to Kirk. Kirk frowned at him, not answering. He waited until Bones was done before getting ready to leave. As he moved to turn, Khan spoke. “Well, when you figure out what’s wrong with your ship, perhaps you might let me know…”

                Bones looked at Kirk, seeing him clench his fists. “Jim, don’t do anything stupid. Let’s just go see Scotty,” he said, trying to warn him. Kirk looked at him before walking off to do just that.

                They went to see the head engineer in charge of keeping the ship’s workings… well… working.

                Spock was already there. Didn’t stop Kirk from shouting, “Scotty, why the hell aren’t we moving?”

                The short haired Scotsman turned toward him. Seeing who it was, his posture slumped. “Captain!” he greeted, before motioning to the pumps which were doing nothing, “One of the pumps seems to have malfunctioned and took in sand to try and pump out. And since sand isn’t water, most of the gunk is just… stuck inside.”

                Kirk frowned, looking at the giant metal tube. “Why do we need this damn thing again?”

                “In case we get any holes in the ship and start taking on water these can pump all the shit out,” he said. Kirk rolled his eyes. He knew why they needed them. It was a rhetorical question. “And we have ta keep them running most of the day so they don’t rust or set in place.”

                “Well can you fix it?” he asked, frowning.

                Scotty sighed. Already a bad sign. “We can, yes, but it’s probably going to take a while… Unless anyone has any brilliant ideas to speed up the process.”

                Kirk looked at Spock expectantly. His pointy eared first mate shook his head, making Kirk groan.

                “Maybe the superman could help,” Bones suggested, looking at his captain, “He seems like the kinda guy who’d think up a stupid way to either blow shit up or make shit work.”

                Kirk frowned at him. “Why are you suggesting this? You’d be the last person I’d expect to suggest working with a criminal.”

                Bones shrugged. “Well, as much as I love watching you get pissed at Scotty for doing his job, I feel like maybe this time we could give ‘im a break.” Scotty laughed at that and kept working at trying to fix the pump.

                Scowling, Kirk said, “I’ll ask him if he has any ideas, but even if he has anything to offer, I’m not bringing him down here. I don’t want him anywhere near something like this. Who know what he could learn to try and take down our ship.” Kirk stormed back toward the brig. When he got there he wasn’t really surprised to see Khan sitting there with a smug little smirk on his face.

                “And what is it?” Khan asked, tilting his head, “Did you find the problem?”

                Kirk clenched his fists. “Shut the hell up,” he spat, “Do you know anything about how a ship’s pump works?”

                Khan made a low growling noise. “Depends what model and what the problem is…” Kirk could tell he wanted more information. He’d be damned if he was going to give it.

                “What would you suggest if a large amount of sand got inside one?” he asked, ignoring the hint from his prisoner.

                Khan frowned. After thinking about it for a moment, he spoke again. “I would suggest flooding the pump. Even at the risk of overusing it and rendering it unusable… The stronger flow of water should flush out a large amount of the particles inside…” He lifted his gaze back up to Kirk. “But how ca you be sure you can trust my word, Captain?”

                Kirk huffed. He was toying with him. He recognized that tone of voice. “Because you’re a wanted criminal and I’m pretty sure the last way you want to die is rotting on a ship that can’t fucking move.”

                “Why not assume control of the Klingon ship?” Khan retorted.

                “Because Klingons have different technology. None of us would know how to keep it functioning and we’d be stuck in the same damn situation. Look,” Kirk was getting mad, “Is that your suggestion or not? You say we should flood the pump?” Khan nodded and Kirk rushed off to tell Scotty.

                His reaction was about what Kirk expected. “Are you crazy!? If we flood the pump it could snap and never work again! I mean, yeah, we have the backup just in case, but this is still crazy!”

                Kirk frowned. “If we have a backup, why the fuck haven’t we been using it?”

                “I wanted to see if we would need to use it,” Scotty replied.

                “Look, will you just flood the pump?” Kirk kicked the tube again, “If it doesn’t work I take full responsibility, kay? Just… try it.” After a staring contest Scotty gave up and started doing what he said. He turned several knobs and the noises of rushing water could be heard coming from inside the cylinder of metal. He twisted a few more times and eventually the noise got louder. The ship shifted rather violently, jolting to one side, and Scotty quickly turned the knobs back the other way.

                After just sitting there saying nothing, Scotty finally turned and looked back at his captain. “I think it’s working,” he said.

                “Good to hear,” Kirk said, grinning, “Now let’s get the hell out of here.” He went up to the helm and took control of the Enterprise. Soon enough they were on their way back home. They had been knocked off course by the storm, but with Spock helping the navigation they would be back on path in no time.

                Bones was by Kirk’s side when it was halfway through the night. “So the bastard actually helped us,” he said, hands behind his back.

                Kirk looked over his shoulder at him before turning back. “Guess so,” he said.

                Bones moved a little closer. “So who is gonna be put in charge of feeding him? Cuz it sure as hell ain’t gonna be me…”

                Kirk laughed a little at that. “It doesn’t really matter. I mean, if you want me to do it whenever I’m done with my shifts at the wheel, I definitely could.”

                Bones patted his back and walked off. It would work out okay for Kirk to go feed him. He could eat as well while he brought Khan food.

                When he got down to the brig he knocked against every cell he went by, enjoying the loud clang of metal. “Chow time!” he called, still hitting the bars with the two trays he had. When he got to Khan’s cell he couldn’t hold back his smile. He looked like he had interrupted a nap.

                “Wakey wakey,” he cooed, setting the trays down and getting the key to unlock his cell. Once the door was open he passed one tray in, waiting until Khan had it in his hands before backing up and getting his own. Pulling up a chair, he plopped himself in the opening of Khan’s cell.

                Khan looked confused. “You’re not locking me in and leaving me to myself?” he asked, sitting down on the floor instead of the wooden bench inside.

                “Nah,” Kirk replied, biting into his jerky. “Food’s not the best, but it should be enough til we get back. Most of it’s dried and salted or pickled or some other shit, but you know… Food is food…” He took a roll, halfway to being stale already, and bit in. “Besides, I figured you might like a little company…”

                Khan was eating his food as well, seeming to only be half-listening to what he was saying. He made a humming noise when Kirk talked about the food being pickled. “I would prefer pickled meats to nothing but vegetation.”

                “That all that was on that island?” Kirk asked, biting the roll again.

                Khan nodded. “Mostly fruits…” Kirk laughed a little. “So I assume the flooding worked?”

                “Yep!” Kirk said, kicking his feet up and propping them against the doorframe. “Scotty thought it would break the ship. To be honest, I did too,” he said, eying the prisoner warily, “We don’t exactly have much reason to trust you.”

                “And yet here you are eating with me with no security in sight and no protective weapon other than a standard sword,” Khan mused. Kirk cringed a little. Okay, so he had him there. He just figured he wouldn’t wanna kill him while he ate. Kirk wouldn’t want that. He’d rather be sure he already had the food in his stomach before trying anything. Maybe he should lock the cell before Khan finished his meal.

                Khan chuckled. “There, now I’ve made you nervous,” he said. Tilting his head and lifting his chin, he looked Kirk dead in the eye, “Or… had I already made you nervous?”

                Kirk blinked a few times. What did he…? Kirk let his feet fall. Had he noticed Kirk looking at him earlier? “Well…” Khan was grinning at him now. “Earlier that was just… I thought it was weird you didn’t have any other weapons…”

                “Even after you watched your crew forcibly check and remove everything I had…?”

                Kirk stood up. He kicked the cell door shut and locked it. Scowling at his prisoner, he walked away.


	3. Fish Fry

 

                Kirk woke the next morning, feeling the boat swaying. Obviously they had dropped anchor during the night and were just waiting for the daylight. Pushing himself out of his cot, he looked at one of his canteens longingly. He missed being able to take regular baths. But fresh water was so scarce on the ship they had to do without and save everything they had for drinking.

                Huffing unhappily, he got two trays and began piling breakfast foods on each. He wasn’t really looking forward to going back down to the brig. He grabbed a couple of bananas, which they had luckily gotten ages before they were ripe, and added them to the trays. The bananas were just starting to brown. But as Kirk said, food was food.

                Walking down the rows of cells, Kirk did exactly what he did the night before. He smacked every bar he could, letting the clang ring out. If Khan wasn’t awake before, he definitely was now.

                Stopping in front of his cell, Kirk grinned. Khan looked like he wanted to strangle him. Just what he was going for!

                “Mornin’ sleeping beauty!” Kirk teased, setting the trays down and getting the keys. When he passed Khan his new tray, the prisoner handed him the old, empty one. Kirk had forgotten that he left it.

                Even though Kirk still ate with him, this time he was smart about it. He locked the door and hung the keys back on the wall.

                “Didn’t learn your lesson last time?” Khan asked, sitting on the floor again. Kirk didn’t get why he kept doing that. There was a perfectly good bench just a few steps behind him.

                Kirk started with the banana. He wanted some fucking fruit. As he ate, he replied. “What’re ya talking about? I locked you in this time, didn’t I?” He grinned when Khan made a face at him. “Ooh, you mean sitting here eating with you…!” Kirk was really playing around now. He wanted to see how angry he could get him before he snapped.

                Shrugging, Kirk said, “Eh… Being down here gives me more time to not be up on deck… Good excuse to not start the day.” Khan hummed and continued eating his food. Kirk frowned. That was it? No snarky words? No attempt to toy with his head? What a let-down.

                Kirk stayed and ate even after Khan had finished his food. He was in no rush. He was a little surprised when the prisoner passed his tray back to him under the cell door.

                “Tryin’ to get rid of me?” he teased.

                Khan went and sat on the bench now. Maybe it was just while he was eating… He didn’t speak until he was actually laying on his back. “Don’t you have a ship to run, _Captain_?”

                With a scowl, Kirk stood up. God, this guy was a dick.

                When he got to the helm, Kirk wasn’t even a little bit surprised to find Spock already there ordering the anchor be raised. He nodded when he saw his captain and kept up with his orders. Looking up, Kirk frowned. “Once you guys finish with the anchor, maybe you wanna drop the main sail so we can get moving?” Several ‘yes sir’s were uttered in response.

                Spock walked to the captain’s side. “I trust things are well with the prisoner,” he said, sort of questioning, but not really.

                Kirk ran his fingers over the wheel. “If you mean he hasn’t escaped yet, yeah,” he replied, “Guy’s a total douche, though.” Spock nodded. Kirk had a feeling he would probably be butting heads with Khan until they made it home. It would only take seven godforsaken months.

                Kirk finally saw crewmen hurrying toward the mast. His few female officers were working with some of the supplies taken from the Klingon ship. It wasn’t that Kirk hadn’t asked lots of women aboard, it was just that most of the ones he asked didn’t want to go. They told him their menstrual cycles would be bad enough. He didn’t blame them. If he was in pain and bleeding the last place he’d want to be was here.

                Stealing a glance at his first mate, Kirk grinned when he saw Spock wave toward Lieutenant Uhura. Kirk knew Spock was planning to propose at some point. Maybe it would be once they got home.

                Once they were finally on the path Spock set for them, the day went by slower than Kirk thought it possibly could. It was a peaceful, quiet day. No storms, no battles, no accidents on the deck, nothing. He hated days like this. His mind always wandered when he had nothing to do besides hold the wheel. Today his mind wandered to his prisoner. Khan had saved his life and the lives of his landing party. Why…? He was a wanted murderer. The last thing Kirk would expect him to do would be save lives! So why did he? He didn’t even know if they knew about his crew. He just helped them right from the start. He had no way of knowing they knew anything about him or the case against him.

                Bones came and stood next to him, chatting with Spock about anything they could. Kirk listened every now and then, but kept thinking about Khan. He had to have a motive. Why would he save them…? Trying to get on their good side maybe? Trying to win their favor? And once he had their trust he would have the ship? That sounded plausible.

                Spock had plotted their course so they would stop off at a few islands along the way. Just in case they needed to restock on anything or in case one island had fresh water. Water sounded really good right about now. Standing under the heat of the sun, feeling the skin of his ears burning. Kirk asked Bones if they had enough in store for him to take a water break. Bones nodded.

                When Kirk got his canteen from his quarters, he paused. Had he given Khan anything to drink since he got here?

                Taking a swig for himself, Kirk hurried out and down to the brig. Khan looked up at him curiously, but didn’t speak. Kirk thrust the little jug through the bars, holding it out to him. “This is yours until it runs out,” he said, “Try to make it last. We don’t have an ample supply of water.” Khan walked over and took the container from him. He looked back up at the captain, but Kirk was already heading back up. He could always get another canteen. He was captain. He’d just tell Bones he gave his to the prisoner.

                Returning to the wheel, Kirk absently informed Bones he gave Khan his water. Bones groaned loudly and trudged off into the ship to fill a new canteen for the captain. When he came back out with it, he shouted, “Promise me you’ll actually keep this one for yourself this time, Jim!” Kirk waved him away and watched Bones head through his door. Kirk’s quarters had been split into two separate small rooms. Originally it had been planned that Spock would be given one half, but when Kirk had seven female officers join the expedition, it quickly became the women’s quarters. Kirk knew it was a tight fit for all of them, but so far he received no complaints.

                Kirk smiled when he heard seagulls. Back home the birds had bothered him, but out here on the ship, where there was hardly ever any sound other than the waves of the sea, he welcomed their cries. He looked up, seeing three fly overhead and land up at the crow’s nest. Probably needed to rest their wings.

                One of his crew was fishing off the side of the boat. Kirk had given him the Nickname of Moby, constantly teasing him about catching a whale. Honestly, though, he was thankful for Moby. He would catch fresh fish for the crew to share. He didn’t always catch much, but anything was better than nothing. It was probably a good way to keep himself occupied, too. He saw him pull up a small wriggling fish and toss it into the bucket beside him.

                Grinning, he called out to him. “Catch anything good, Moby?”

                Moby turned to him with a smile, “Three small cod and five sardines so far, Cap’n!”

                Kirk’s smile widened. “Hey, keep it up and we can have a fish fry tonight!” Moby saluted him and went back to his fishing, a smile firmly plastered on his sun-kissed face.

                And then it was quiet for a long while. It felt like they were chasing the sun. Kirk was sure it had to be at least ten in the evening by now, but the sun was still up. Not high, but up. Sitting there, Kirk saw his crew beginning to set up the little pot they had fixed for fires. Looks like the fish fry was actually happening.

                Kirk absently thought about letting Khan come up for this. He remembered seeing something about how humans needed sunlight for some vitamin or something a while back. If for no other reason but to let him get some sun, Kirk decided he’d bring Khan up.

                When he went down there, Khan looked like he was expecting him to have a tray of food. Kirk only grinned, opened the door, and grabbed a cuff with an attached cannonball. Khan didn’t say a word as Kirk locked the cuff around his ankle.

                “Where are we going?” he asked, once Kirk had handed him the ball at the end of its chain.

                Kirk pointed up. “Fish fry,” he said, smiling. Khan didn’t argue as he followed the captain up and out of the brig.

                To say the crew looked surprised that the captain had brought the prisoner up would be a massive understatement. They all looked bewildered. One of them even asked the captain what he was thinking.

                Kirk smiled, pulling up a box to sit on. He grabbed another for Khan and sat. “It’s fine guys,” he said, “Just for food.” He patted the ball Khan was still holding, and said, “Pretty hard to do much with this stupid thing strapped to your leg.” The crew muttered their agreement, but none of them really let their guard down.

                Kirk watched Khan place the weight between his feet. He didn’t look comfortable, but Kirk didn’t really care. He was still their prisoner and a criminal. Comfort was something he didn’t really deserve.

                The captain passed his prisoner one of the skewered fish before grabbing one for himself. “Nice haul, Moby,” he said, “How many did you catch in all?”

                Moby answered between bites of fish. “Fifteen sardines. Suckers really seemed to like the jerky. And then the cod. And then oddly enough I caught about four things that looked like catfish.”

                “I thought catfish were freshwater,” Kirk said.

                Moby nodded. “I’m not sure what these things were. Ugly lookin’ things.” Kirk laughed and returned to is food. It was after Kirk had all but finished that he noticed Khan hadn’t eaten. He was just… sitting there. Kirk followed his gaze and saw Khan was looking towards the sun.

                “Nice to get some sun, huh?” Kirk asked, gaining his attention, “After being locked up for near two days…”

                Some of the crew turned to look at Khan, awaiting his response. The prisoner smiled and lifted his food. “It’s certainly not unenjoyable,” he replied.

                “Your fish is probably cold by now,” Kirk said, “You can heat it back up if you want…” Khan ignored Kirk’s suggestion and bit into his food. One of the crew laughed.

                “Ya see captain? Nobody likes it when you tell them what to do.”

                Kirk smirked at him. “But you all have to do it because I’m captain, right?” he pandered back, catching the joke right away.

                The same crew member said, “Aye, but if ya weren’t captain we’d probably have you locked in tha brig too!” The others laughed and agreed.

                It was a nice meal. Good conversation. Once the sun sank below the horizon, the crew started cleaning things up. Kirk saw a few of them heading towards the anchor. Time to take Khan back down to the brig then.

                As they were walking down the steps, the ship threw everything backward violently. Kirk fell into Khan, who was walking down behind him. “God damnit, they do that every time!” he shouted, angrily trying to lift himself back up. One of his legs had caught under the plank of wood that was the step.

                Kirk stopped struggling when Khan’s hands slid under his arms. Snapping his head as far as he could to see the criminal, Kirk quickly snapped, “What the hell are you doing?!”

                Khan frowned at him. “Turn your foot to the right,” he said, ignoring the question. A scowl firmly set on his face, Kirk did what he said. Once he told Khan he had, the black haired man pulled. Kirk felt the pressure beneath his shoulders as Khan lifted him out of the step.

                When he was set back down, Kirk felt his face red with embarrassment. “Oh,” he grumbled. Khan had been trying to help him.

                “You were crushing me,” Khan said, bending to pick up the ball, which had fallen during that whole mess.

                Kirk frowned. “You saying I’m fat?” Khan grinned at him and walked around him down the rest of the stairs. Kirk wasn’t letting that go, though. Rushing after him, Kirk asked again. “Are you saying I’m fat? Don’t walk away from me, answer my question! Hey!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw spelling errors in the last chapter after I re-read it today. I'll try to edit them later...  
> Again, if you catch anything big in this one, let me know.  
> I don't have the best eyes.


	4. Colossal Idiot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had more already started, so I decided to finish it. Also, I don't want to do my homework...

 

                Kirk was resting himself on the cot in his quarters. He hadn’t slept too well. There was no light coming in through the tiny porthole window he had. So either it was still night or there were dark clouds above. Running his fingers through his slightly too long hair, Kirk groaned.

                He looked to his side, just appreciating the mess that was around him. It looked so over-crowded in here now. He hadn’t had much stuff in the first place, but now with a room half the size it was supposed to be it seemed like a lot more.

                His eyes ran over everything in his room. He frowned when he noticed the robe Khan had been wearing hanging off the back of his chair. He sat up. “When did that get in here?” he mused to himself, walking over and picking it up. Had his security officers put it inside after it was taken from the criminal? Kirk ran his fingers over the material. It felt heavy and thick. Maybe wool or something akin to that. On an island with little protection from the sun, this seemed like a terrible thing to wear… But… Khan had been on an island full of trees and bushes and other types of plants. It was probably shady in the depths of the jungle. And the dark fabric would have helped him blend in, should anyone have come looking for him.

                Kirk slowly brought it up to his nose. It smelled old. Like library books… He smiled at the thought of that. Khan smelled like dusty old library books? That would be something fun to tease him about.

                Should he have been more professional considering he had a wanted mass murderer as his prisoner? Probably. Any other high ranking officer wouldn’t have given Khan any types of rights or comforts or niceties. But Kirk wasn’t any other officer, was he? It wasn’t in his nature to be all business and no fun. If he were so stuffy and uptight he was pretty sure he’d have gone insane.

                He set the robe back down and walked to his porthole. Looking outside, he could see the dark, menacing looking clouds. Probably a storm today. He was okay with that. Better a storm and something interesting to do than another day of peace and quiet.

                He decided to check with Spock before anything else today. His first mate wasn’t up at the wheel yet, so he went down to the crew’s quarters. “Heya, Spock,” he said, finding him awake and dressing, “You see those clouds up there?”

                “I have not,” Spock replied, “Do they appear to be cumulonimbus?” Kirk shrugged and Spock rolled his eyes. “I will go check.” He yanked his jacket on and went up the stairs. Kirk followed behind him.

                Once they were up there, Spock sighed. They were. “If there are signs of lightning, it may be unwise for us to even attempt to lower the sail.”

                Kirk groaned. “Well, I guess let’s just wait and see. Don’t wake anybody up til we find out, okay?” Spock nodded. The two of them stood, watching those clouds roll around above them. When the sound of thunder off in the distance met his ears, Kirk groaned louder. “We’re never gonna get back home at this rate.”

                “It is only one day, Captain,” he said, “Perhaps the storm will not last the entirety of the day.”

                “I sure fucking hope so,” Kirk grumbled. Spock didn’t say anything, just looked in the direction the thunder came. “Why don’t you go get some breakfast?”

                “Will you be joining me, Captain?” Spock asked.

                Kirk thought about it for a moment. He only needed to bring food to Khan. And that could wait til after he had breakfast. Yeah, why not? He dined with Spock that morning. Halfway through their meal, Lieutenant Uhura exited her quarters and joined them. Kirk felt pretty uncomfortable when his two officers started sharing food and kisses. He took his leave.

                He still had some food left. He could finish his food with Khan.

                Instead of hitting every cell he went by, this time Kirk hit every other cell. Khan was grinning at him when he finally got to his cell. “Changing things up, are we?” he asked, the tiniest hint of a laugh in his throat.

                Once Khan had his tray of food and his seat, Kirk plopped himself into his chair. He had locked the door again. Just to be safe. Kirk wondered if Khan would notice how little food he had. Playing around, distracting from his half-empty tray of food, Kirk said, “Well, I mean, if I do the same thing every morning, it’d get boring. I don’t wanna bore _you_ now do I?”

                Kirk heard the laugh, even though it was muffled by Khan’s food. “I suppose not,” Khan replied. He took a small drink from the canteen he was given and Kirk cursed because he forgot to drink anything. Khan held the still open jug to him. “It is yours,” he said, when Kirk looked surprised, “So to speak, I’m only borrowing it.”

                Kirk took it from him, taking a small drink before giving it back. “Thanks,” he said, “You didn’t have to. I got another one.”

                “Oh,” Khan said, smiling, “Well in that case, spit it back up. I want it back.” Kirk laughed. For being such a dick, Khan had a sense of humor.

                Sitting there, looking up at the wooden planks, Kirk remembered the robe he had been fiddling with. “Did you want your robe back?” he asked, turning his head back toward Khan, “Security put it in my quarters. Not really sure what I can do with it…” Khan only shrugged. Kirk took that as ‘why not’ and went up to get it.

                The minute he was out on deck he felt the rain. He hadn’t heard it from down in the brig. And then he saw the flash of lightning not too far from the ship. Most of his crew was staying inside right now. A few went outside just to grab a few things, but all went back inside right away. He hurried to grab the robe and went back down to the brig.

                Tossing it through the bars, Kirk said, “Here ya go. It smells like old books.”

                Khan caught it with his free hand, the other holding his food. He gave the captain a look. “You were smelling my clothes?”

                Kirk went red. “That’s not…! I wasn’t…!” This wasn’t how he wanted the teasing to go. God damnit, he fucked up. The grin on Khan’s face was positively evil. Kirk was still trying to stammer out an excuse. “I- I wasn’t smelling your clothes! It’s just raining out and I wanted to keep it dry, so I pulled it close to me!”

                Khan didn’t look like he believed him. He was still too happy looking to believe him. Kirk swallowed nervously.

                “Sh-shut up!” Kirk quickly shouted.

                I didn’t say anything, Captain,” Khan hummed, setting his robe down beside him on the floor, “Would you like me to?”

                Kirk turned away from him, moving his chair. He had only just set it into place and turned back to say something to Khan when a loud crack resounded from above. He was running in an instant. When he got up on deck he saw the fire. Even in the rain, the lightning had ignited something. Other crew members were rushing around just like he was.

                Spock had been the one to shout, “It must be smothered! The rain is doing little to put it out, which is reason to believe any more water will be useless!” And somebody took a very large blanket and threw it over the flames. If only the blanket had been wet and not super flammable.

                Kirk grabbed the nearest rags for cleaning the deck and threw them over top, stomping down and squishing the soaked fabric into the burning blanket. He ignored officers shouting at him about his leg. Burns were worth it to save his ship from going down. Once the fire was out and everyone on deck was thoroughly soaked to the bone, Kirk let himself flop backwards onto his butt.

                “That sucked,” he grumbled. Bones was by his side almost immediately, already looking at his leg.

                “Jim, you colossal idiot, you have third degree burns all over your leg!” He chastised his captain, “You’ve gotta stop jumping into things that are dangerous without thinking! One of these days you’re gonna get really hurt and I’m not gonna be able to help you.”

                Kirk only smiled, patting the ship’s doctor on the head. “Good to hear your sweet voice again, Bones,” he said. Bones scowled at him and began applying salve to his leg. “Spock, does it look like this storm’s gonna be over any time soon?”

                “It is still a possibility,” he said. Kirk saw Chekov running behind Spock, grabbing something, and then hurrying back down inside the ship, no doubt to help Scotty with something. Did Scotty even know there had been a fire?

                Once Bones was all done with his leg, he let the captain stand. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he warned. When Kirk made to speak, Bones gave him an even harsher scowl and Kirk closed is mouth. Bones gave him a pat on the shoulder and walked with him to where a large amount of the crew was now sitting. It was at least some cover, even if it was one of the weapon stores. A couple guys were pulling out cards. Of course they invited their captain to join the game.

                Spock won.

                Six times.

                How he always managed to know what to do to win, Kirk didn’t know. He understood with something like chess, but this was a simple card game. How could he know how to win every round?

                Getting annoyed with his overly logical explanations of how he won, Kirk got up and checked outside. The rain had stopped and the clouds weren’t as dark. He let everyone know, but told them today would just be a relaxation day. “We don’t have to leave until we’re really sure the weather is great,” he said, grinning at the multiple sighs of relief he heard in response. “But be ready early tomorrow! I want to make up for lost time!” The sighs were now groans.

                Kirk marched out with a grin. He went down to tell Scotty and Chekov.

                Scotty looked miffed at first, but eventually decided he had nothing to be mad about. “Some of the guys are playing cards up in the weapons room, but be warned,” Kirk said, seeing Scotty light up at the mention of cards, “Spock’s playing.” The smile fell and Scotty’s face set to a look of determination. Kirk already knew he was going to try and beat him. He couldn’t talk him out of it.

                After his two engineering officers rushed off, Kirk went to his quarters to find his little box for chess. Brushing the dust off the top, he smiled to himself and headed back down to the brig where Khan was sitting on the bench in his cell.

                He looked surprised when he saw him. Kirk grinned. “Everything all right?” he asked.

                Khan nodded. “You didn’t hit the cells while you were walking, so I assumed it was someone else…”

                Kirk went and got the keys, as well as the weighted ankle cuff. Chuckling, Kirk said, “I told you, if I did the same thing every time it would be boring!” Opening the cell and walking over to cuff Khan’s leg, Kirk spoke again. “So, how good are you at chess?” Once Khan was safely hooked to the cannonball, Kirk looked up at him expectantly.

                Khan looked confused, but he still answered. “I’m… fine at it…” he watched Kirk get up and get his box. Opening it up and unfolding all its parts into a full board, Kirk hummed happily. He yanked out the pieces, still humming.

                He set the box down on the bench next to Khan, and sat on the other side of it. “Okay,” he said, starting to set out pieces, “I’ll be white and you’ll be black.”

                “Because I’m a criminal?” Khan asked, expecting Kirk to be baiting him into another joke.

                Kirk looked at him. “No, because you’re dressed all in black, have black hair, and a black robe. Black seemed fitting.” Khan tilted his head ever so slightly. For some reason Kirk really noticed that, mimicking him unconsciously.

                Once all the pieces were set up, Kirk made the first move. “If you’re as good as Spock is, I probably just fucked myself,” he said, watching Khan pick up his first piece.

                After about three rounds of crushing defeat, Kirk said, “Yep. Definitely fucked myself.”

                Khan smiled. “Would you like me to go easier on you?” Kirk could tell that was teasing. He made a face at the prisoner and Khan laughed. “Clearly not.”

                Kirk lost another five times. Leaning back, letting out a slow breath, Kirk looked at the pieces on the board. He was out of options.

                “Shit…” he whispered, as Khan picked up his last piece.

                “Checkmate,” the prisoner said, for the ninth damn time. “Perhaps we should play something else?”

                Kirk shook his head. “You and Spock need to face off,” he said, “I would put money on it that the two of you would be stuck in endless games forever.”

                “You don’t think either of us would win?” Khan asked, lifting Kirk’s king and looking at it. He ran his fingers over a large chip in the top of the piece.

                Putting the pieces back inside the box, Kirk replied, “Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like that’s a real possibility…” Kirk kept trying to take pieces, only to have Khan pick them up before he could. “God damnit,” he growled, trying to grab a knight and missing again, “God damn, will you stop that?”

                Khan swiped another piece. “Stop what?” he asked, grinning.

                Kirk finally grabbed one at the exact same instant Khan did. “Ha!” He grinned at him, not caring that he hadn’t really taken it yet. Khan chuckled, sliding his fingers over Kirk’s before letting him take the piece.

                Kirk probably shouldn’t have enjoyed spending so much time with a murderer, but here he was, laughing and joking around with one. Honestly, if Khan wasn’t a wanted criminal, Kirk could see him being part of his crew, maybe even second in command.

                While Khan was helping him fold up the chess board, Kirk decided to be his usual self. “You smell like old people,” he whispered, “Just like your stinky old robe.”

                Khan looked at him, at first looking confused, then grinning. “Still smelling me, Captain?”

                “Well when you smell like my grandma, it’s hard not to,” Kirk replied right back, his grin matching Khan’s.

                The criminal contemplated him for a moment before he smiled again. “I think I prefer smelling like old people to smelling like dirty laundry.”

                “You take that back!” Kirk quickly said, jumping forward on the bench, knocking the chess board off, spilling the pieces they just worked so hard to gather up all over the floor. Khan huffed dramatically, looking at the mess. “I do not smell like dirty laundry. You take it back, you meanie.” That made Khan laugh.

                Humming, Khan took hold of one of the folds in Kirk’s shirt. Not saying anything for a moment, he just kept making that humming noise. “All right,” he said at last, “I take it back.”

                Kirk was waiting for it.

                “You smell like seaweed.”


	5. Really Hot Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My titles need some work...

 

                The day had started very early. Kirk was so ready to keep heading toward home. Even though no one wanted to be up before the sun, Kirk’s good mood seemed infectious. He had eaten breakfast with Khan as fast as he could and run up to the wheel. Homeward bound. He loved the sound of it on his ears. He loved the feeling of travel, but not anywhere near as much as when he was traveling to a specific destination. The time they had spent searching for Khan had been awful because it just felt like endless searching over an ocean full of nothing. Now that he knew where they were going, everything was wonderful.

                “Well someone sure is in a good mood,” Scotty said, coming up and smiling at his captain.

                Kirk beamed sunshine. “Hey Scotty! Not down in the pumps?”

                “Eh,” he rolled his shoulders, “Takin’ a wee break, ya know? The laddie can handle things.” Kirk continued to be a beacon of happiness. Everyone went about their day in a good mood thanks to him. Today was a good day. There was a nice, strong breeze blowing through his hair. The sun wasn’t overbearing. It was nice.

                Every now and then Kirk was given updates on their progress and on Moby’s catches for the day. Uhura was working with one of their science officers, still concerned by the Klingon stuff they found. Her name was Carol Marcus. Kirk remembered all too well because her father was the Admiral that had assigned his crew to finding Khan. She was very pretty. Even with salt and sweat and dirt all over her face.

                After watching for a while, Kirk called Spock and a couple security officers over to him. “Gentlemen,” he said, “It’s a nice, sunny day out. Why don’t we let our prisoner come up and enjoy it with us?”

                “Captain?” Spock looked surprised.

                “Just put the weighted chain on his leg and we shouldn’t have any problems,” Kirk said, “If he tried jumping overboard he’d drown himself, and if he wants to attack anyone, he’ll have that thing weighing him down.” They didn’t look convinced, but he waved at them. “Just bring him up. People need sun.” And they walked off to bring Khan up.

                The criminal was brought up to the helm, where the captain and first mate could keep their eyes on him. Kirk turned his head toward him. “Want a chair?” he offered, still the beaming ray of light he was.

                “No, I’m fine without,” Khan replied, “Thank you, captain.” Spock frowned at Jim for even offering.

                The air smelled like salt. Just like always. It was nice.

                Khan stood between Kirk and Spock. Spock had insisted. If either of them needed a moment to focus on other things, the other could watch for a possible attack. Kirk had rolled his eyes during Spock’s explanation. He smiled when he looked at how at peace the prisoner looked. His eyes were just staring out over the vastness of the sea, but Kirk could tell he’d been a man of the ocean for a long time. He looked like he belonged out here.

                Khan blinked and looked at the captain, who was still smiling and staring. He made a small smile back and looked back out over the water.

                “You look happy,” Kirk said, finally turning his attention back to his task of steering the ship. Kirk ignored Spock looking at him.

                Khan nodded, just watching the waves. “It would be better if I were not alone…” His voice was quiet as he said it.

                “What’re you talking about? You’ve got me standing right next to you, idiot!” Kirk teased, turning to beam at the criminal. Khan made a face at him and looked at the crew running around. Kirk followed his eyes.

                “Oh,” his voice fell, “You meant your crew…” Khan nodded, eyes stopping on little Chekov. Kirk watched him too. The teenager was helping one of the much larger men tie a knot with a rope wider than his leg. He looked like he was struggling, but he was laughing and smiling once it was done.

                “Chekov’s our baby,” Kirk said after a while. Khan turned and looked at him. “Kid’s absolutely brilliant. Russian genius. Could probably figure out how to get people on the moon before he’s forty. Plus, he’s practically a puppy. Just wants to help and learn everything he can.” Kirk grinned, looking over at his first mate. “Pretty soon he’ll be as brilliant as Spock, here.” Spock looked at him, a faint smile on his face. Kirk said to Khan, “Spock’s what you would call a natural born genius. One of the brightest minds I’ve ever seen.”

                Khan smiled hearing him talk. “You clearly care very much for your crew,” he said, “That’s a wonderful thing to see.” Kirk saw Spock looking at the back of Khan’s head, not as angry now as he was before. Kirk grinned. He was slowly convincing his crew that Khan wasn’t a terrifying beast they all needed to be afraid of.

                After several days of Kirk making his men bring Khan up to be part of the journey, it was pretty obvious the crew was becoming more comfortable around him. Spock had started letting him wander away from the helm after about a week. Chekov had run straight into Khan when he was trying to bring supplies to Scotty, and he had only seemed worried about the pieces everywhere. Uhura had asked Khan if he spoke Klingon one morning, to everyone’s surprise he said no, that he couldn’t, but he could read it. Apparently she needed that anyway- Khan had been promptly dragged over to where the female officers were working with their objects. And he stayed there for quite a few days. Kirk hardly ever got any time alone with him anymore.

                At the end of a long day, Spock informed Kirk that tomorrow they would most likely be arriving at their first island. Kirk was very happy to hear that. Moby had another successful haul today, thanks to a few members of the crew helping him bring in a massive tuna. The damn fish had snapped his pole! But it was definitely going to be one heck of a cookout tonight. Enough for everyone to have a helping and a half.

                Kirk had two trays of cooked meat. He waved Khan over to him, patting the box beside him.

                The criminal set the weight down as he sat. He accepted the tray Kirk offered with a small, “Thank you.”

                Kirk grinned at him. Khan had a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. He had never seen him work up a sweat before. “Those ladies workin’ you too hard?” he asked as playfully as he could, “I never get to see you anymore. You’re always over there working.”

                Khan shook his head. “The work is fine. I had made the suggestion of trying to put the pieces together,” he said.

                Kirk didn’t ask what the pieces were of, he just asked, “Did it work?” Khan shook his head again. Nodding, Kirk ate more of his food. He heard someone next to him make a joke. He laughed at the bits he heard.

                “I am… surprised,” Khan said, drawing Kirk’s eyes back to him. Kirk didn’t say anything, he just waited to see what Khan would say. “I had not expected you and your crew would be so… inviting toward me.”

                “Well, you were gonna be on this ship with us for seven months,” Kirk said, “Either you were gonna rot for seven months in the brig, or you were gonna use the time.” He rested his food on his leg for a minute. “I don’t usually like seeing my crew avoiding someone. Even if that someone is a criminal. It just… feels wrong leaving somebody out of something that should involve them.” Khan hummed.

                After a moment of no talking, Kirk said, “Besides, I like you. And I’m an excellent judge of character.”

                Khan chuckled. “Only a little full of ourselves, are we?” The criminal teased the captain.

                Kirk pushed his hand against Khan’s arm, only striving to off center him. “Shut up.”

                The next morning Kirk watched Khan going back to work with Uhura and Carol and the others. He could see him touching one of the things they had found on the Klingon ship. Probably reading it.

                While he was trying to lift a different piece onto that one, a member of the crew accidentally knocked into something and spilled the oil they had all over him. Kirk covered his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. He could see the poor guy apologizing, but Khan didn’t seem too mad. Kirk watched Carol hand him a rag for his face. Khan had proceeded to yank his shirt off. Kirk, since he was far away, very openly looked him over. From what he could tell at the distance, Khan was very nicely built. Rippling muscle all over. Maybe Khan could join the landing party when they reached the island. Kirk would not mind looking at that body while he worked.

                The captain was a bit embarrassed when he realized his thoughts had wandered… low. Shifting and trying to hide the bulge in his pants. Was he really that interested in Khan’s body? Judging by the insistent heat in his groin, apparently he was.

                He thought about going onto that island and sneaking off somewhere to run his hands all over that- “Fuck.” Thoughts like that were not helping.

                Khan definitely could _not_ come on this trip. Kirk wouldn’t be able to control himself. Similar to a situation a while back in a bar where Kirk saw a woman with a pair of perfect tits and he ended up with a broken nose and… yeah. He may have a case of wandering hands…

                He could see the island a far way off. They’d reach it before sundown. “Spock,” he said, “Before we get to the island, make sure Khan’s locked back in his cell. I don’t care if they keep the weight on him or not, I just don’t want to risk him getting off the ship.” Spock nodded, saying something about how that was a wise decision. Kirk felt bad, he and Khan had kind of become friends at this point.

                Kirk laughed. “Man, I’ve got some really hot friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I work on when I don't want to work on homework. This story.


	6. The Island

 

                “This island has a fucking lake! Yes!” Kirk sounded like a child on Christmas. He was jumping over rocks and fallen trees, ignoring members of his crew shouting at him to slow down. Finally reaching the lake, he scooped up a handful of water and slurped like a pig.

                Sulu reached him first. “Captain, what if the water had parasites?”

                “Then those parasites tasted fuckin’ great,” Kirk replied, grinning up at Sulu. “It tastes fine to me.”

                Spock got there next. “The taste of the water does not mean it did not contain pathogens,” he said. Kirk groaned and rolled his eyes, shoulders slumping forward. Sulu laughed at him, squatting down to scoop a hand into the cool water.

                Kirk watched him drink it. After a moment, he looked to Spock. “He’s right, Commander, it tastes fine,” he said. Spock didn’t look happy that Sulu was encouraging the captain. For that, Kirk gave Sulu a very heartfelt high-five.

                Members of the crew were gathering fruits and things like that for the ship. They found coconuts, which Spock said would be a good source of water, should any of their water sources become contaminated. Bones came with one of the larger members of the crew carrying a massive barrel to be filled with water and sealed.

                There were things that looked like peppers growing on a few bushes on the island, but Spock and Bones both said they resembled a poisonous species, so nobody was allowed to touch them.

                Kirk had been climbing a large rock formation, looking to see if anything promising was on the other side. The view from up there was nice. All he saw different was a cave. That would have been a nice place to run off with Khan…

                “Anything good?” Bones called up to him.

                Kirk shouted back down at him, “Just a cave. Doesn’t look special.” He saw Bones turn to Spock, probably asking him if it was worth the effort. The sun was dropping fast. Staying on the island for too long wasn’t the best idea.

                After a short discussion, Jim was told to head back down. It seemed to be time to return to the ship. Kirk steered them away from the small island once everything was stored properly. He didn’t take the ship too far before giving the order to drop the anchor.

                When the boat lurched to a stop, nearly tossing him down the steps, Kirk frowned at the men who had dropped the anchor. “Sorry, Captain,” they said.

                Kirk went to the supplies and took one of the coconuts. He wanted to have one.

                Sulu showed him how to cut it open, warning against chopping it clean it half and accidentally spilling everything inside it. Kirk took a sip from the brown shell and smiled. It was sweet. He had never been overly fond of coconut, but in a situation like his… It was wonderful. He used his fingers to claw out some of the meat on the side, which tasted more like candy than fruit.

                Keeping the fuzzy round shell tucked under his arm, Kirk brought food down to his favorite prisoner in the brig.

                Khan looked up when he got to his cell. The guys had left the weight on his leg. Great! Kirk could go and sit inside.

                Once the cell was opened up, Kirk walked in with the food. “I take it the excursion went well,” Khan said, moving to sit on the floor. Kirk frowned. He had wanted to sit on the bench. With a huff, he sat on the ground next to Khan.

                “Yeah,” he answered, once he was all settled, “There was a nice big lake on it. Got a whole barrel of fresh water. _And_ ,” he held up the coconut, opening it and offering it to Khan, “it had some of these bad boys!”

                Khan accepted the fruit, smiling at how happy Kirk sounded. “There were pepper things, too, but Spock an’ Bones said they looked poisonous,” Kirk added, picking up a pickled pig leg. He watched Khan drink from the fruit and smiled when an idea popped into his head.

                Leaning forward ever so slightly, Kirk tapped the bottom of the shell, tipping it just enough to spill on Khan. Khan spluttered a bit, Kirk laughed like a fool, and Khan set the stupid thing down. Kirk was still giggling as the criminal wiped himself off.

                “Very funny,” Khan said.

                Wiping a tear from his eye, Kirk replied, “It really was, though. I totally got you!”

                Khan only sighed and went back to eating his food. Kirk still sat, grinning with his victory for a long while after that. When Khan looked up at him, Kirk was still beaming. “You’re really proud of that one, aren’t you?” he mused, chuckling deep in his throat.

                “It was a good one and you know it,” Kirk said, reaching out to poke Khan’s chest. Khan made a face at him in response and pushed Kirk’s hand back down. “Admit it,” Kirk said, poking him again, “I got you good.”

                Khan pushed his hand down again, only for Kirk to put it right back and poke him more insistently. Huffing with a smile, Khan said, “You’re an infant.”

                “An infant that got you,” Kirk said, now using both hands to prod at Khan’s chest. He pouted at how stiff Khan’s chest was. Probably all muscle under there. Kirk couldn’t even enjoy the squish of a good poke. Stupid muscular Khan.

                Finally Khan just grabbed Kirk’s wrists. “All right, all right. You got me.” Kirk yanked his hands back and threw them in the air with a whoop of joy. As he did, Khan smiled wickedly and shoved him. Kirk landed on his back with an ‘oof’. He heard Khan laughing at him.

                Sitting up fast, Kirk shouted, “Hey!” Khan kept laughing, picking up on of the bread rolls Kirk had grabbed. “That wasn’t very nice.”

                “I’m not a very nice person,” Khan replied, eyes gleaming as Kirk pouted at him. “You’ve seen the records, you know how many people I’ve killed,” he said, “it shouldn’t really surprise you.”

                Kirk’s face fell at the drop in mood. Khan had gotten all serious all of a sudden. “Well, yeah I’ve seen the records…” he said, confusion practically pouring out of him, “But, I don’t-“

                “Don’t worry, _Captain_ , you and the rest of the world will be rid of me come our return,” Khan interrupted, sneering at the word captain.

                Kirk was startled by the sudden change in Khan. He hadn’t been like this at all on the whole trip. “Khan…” He tried to reach out and touch him, but Khan moved himself away. Kirk looked at him for a moment. “Why did you kill all those people?” he asked, voice quiet, “The records tell me how many, but it doesn’t give me a motive…”

                “You know Admiral Marcus, yes?” Khan responded with a question. Kirk nodded. “You can blame him for the unnecessary deaths…”

                “Why?”

                Kirk could see anger boiling up just under the surface. Khan looked ready to rip someone’s head off. He had only ever looked that frightening when he asked about…

                “Your crew…” Kirk breathed, suddenly realizing it. He looked at Khan for confirmation.

                The criminal nodded. “Marcus took my crew from me,” he said, that rage still very much there, but now layered under a sadness that made Khan’s voice soft, “He had been waiting for us… I saw him. I tried to smuggle them all away. Somewhere safe, out of his reach… Away from the soldiers… But we were discovered. He took them…” Kirk was mortified seeing a tear rolling down Khan’s cheek. He wanted to jump forward and hold him until the sorrow left. He wanted to hug that sadness out of the criminal.

                Khan continued, voice shaking first with sorrow, then more and more with fury as he went. “He forced me to help him… Do as he commanded or my crew would be killed… The only family I have and this pathetic, disgusting, whelp of a man had the nerve to threaten their lives…! I tried to free them. I tried… I had no choice but to escape alone…” Kirk visibly saw Khan’s shoulders shaking. His knuckles were red with the fierceness he clenched his fists. “I had **every reason** to suspect he had killed. Every. Single. One of the people I old most dear…”

                Kirk couldn’t stop his hands from reaching forward to rub Khan’s shoulders. The tears were back. He pushed the trays out of his way and moved closer, willing his hands to soothe the hate and the pain out of Khan.

                Icy blue eyes looked at his hands. “What are you doing…?”

                Kirk shrugged, pressing his head to Khan’s back, still rubbing his hands in circles on strong shoulders. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know why he felt so strongly for Khan’s suffering. This man had been trying so hard to save his family. Nothing had mattered in his path to save them. He had killed for them. Taken orders from the man who had taken them from him for them. Saved a crew he didn’t know, just to find out if they were still alive or not. His crew meant everything to him. And now that he knew they were alive he was willing to be taken to his death for them… Kirk smiled a little. He knew why he cared so much.

                Finally Kirk spoke again. “You’re a good captain…”


	7. Go It Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is so short, I'm going to post it. Enjoy some angry captains punching each other in the face!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ENJOY TWO HOT DORKS BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER

 

                Kirk had been awake for hours. He just laid there looking at the ceiling. He felt awful. He was so tired but he just couldn’t sleep.

                Khan had done everything for his crew. And here he was, taking the poor, loyal-to-a-fault man to his demise. He probably wouldn’t even get to see his crew before he was hanged. Hell, they would probably be executed too. They were pirates, after all. They had broken laws and barriers and all sorts of treaties.

                But it was wrong Khan had done so much for a good reason. If Kirk were in his position he couldn’t say he would do much different. He would fight every step of the way. He would fight until the bitter end. Up until the rope snapped his neck and he choked on bone, he would fight.

                Kirk sat up.

                Khan wasn’t willingly going to his death. He was still going to fight.

                Now Kirk stood.

                Khan was going to make a break for it once they landed back home. He was going to kill anyone he needed to in order to set his crew free.

                “Shit.” He ran down the stairs and into the brig. He grabbed the keys and threw Khan’s cell door open.

                The criminal groaned, sitting up from where he slept on the bench. “It can’t be morning yet,” he said, rubbing one eye. Kirk would ignore how cute he looked.

                Kirk just stood there, breathing heavily, looking at him. Khan tilted his head. “Something wrong?” he asked.

                Finally Kirk’s mouth seemed to connect with his brain. “You can’t do it,” he said, lungs still heaving, heart racing in his chest. “Khan, you can’t. You’ll be killed.”

                Khan’s face folded. “What are you talking about? Can’t do what?”

                 Kirk swallowed. It felt like no matter how still he stood, his lungs took in air like he was sprinting. His heart was beating against his ribs like a caged animal. “I know you love your crew, but trying to betray us and get to them when we land will only get you shot.”

                Khan’s eyes widened briefly before his face twisted into the same look of rage from before. “Please,” Kirk said, stepping into the cell, “Please don’t try and save them.”

                Not responding, Khan jumped forward, a roar rising from his lungs. He threw Kirk to the ground. “Don’t you try and tell me not to save them!” he hissed, hands grabbing for Kirk’s neck. The captain fought as best he could, but he knew what Khan was capable of. “You know **nothing** of what I’ve put them through! You have no idea what I would do to let them live!”

                Kirk choked and sputtered, gasping for air, trying to pry Khan’s fingers from his throat. “No,” he replied, voice weak, “I do. I do know.”

                Roaring again, Khan punched Kirk. He heard the sickening snap more than felt it. The warmth of his blood washed over his face.

                “I would do exactly the same,” Kirk said. He gasped painfully when Khan’s hands returned to his throat. “I-if I,” a deep, hoarse breath, “I were you…” Khan’s grip loosened. “I,” another agonizingly wheezy breath, “I would do anything I-I could… to save them.” Kirk fought the blackness creeping into his vision. “I’d give myself… before I let them die.”

                Khan let go of his neck, but the fury in his eyes remained. “You don’t understand,” Khan growled down at him.

                Kirk reached a shaky hand up and Khan pulled him up into a sitting position. “I understand more than you give me credit for,” Kirk said, ignoring the pain flaring up in his nose now.

                Khan looked at Kirk and smiled. “Your doctor and First Officer are not going to be pleased with me…”

                “What?” Kirk asked, a smile making him wince, “What’re you talkin’ about? I just fell, being my normal stupid self.” Khan chuckled a little at him.

                Sighing, Kirk put a weak hand on Khan’s arm. “In all seriousness, though,” he said, “Please don’t try to do this on your own… We have six months until we get back home. We can figure out a way to save your crew… Maybe even you too.” Khan smiled. “Just don’t go it alone… Okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, since this one was so much shorter, I decided to just post it now. Sorry it was so much smaller than the others...


	8. USS Wingate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is being posted right before my birthday because I don't plan to update on my birthday. I plan to do nuthin. I plan to go to my classes and come home and fucking sleep.

 

                Bones had been incredibly annoyed when he was roused from sleep by his acting captain. He then became horrified when he turned and saw a bloody mess looking at him. And lastly he became furious when Kirk told him he broke his nose. A huge scolding and several dozen “you need to be more careful”s ensued.

                Kirk only laughed as Bones chewed his ear off. It hurt having his nose reset and then bandaged and wiped clean, but at least he could breathe normally.

                “I’m serious, Jim,” Bones growled, “You get hurt too often. You need to be more careful.”

                Ignoring him, Kirk went up the steps to the deck and promptly tripped. Bones was spewing profanities at him.

                Kirk beamed when he saw another Star Fleet Vessel not far from their ship. It was much smaller than the Enterprise, and Kirk had to guess that meant it was a lot faster. He could already see it heading their way. When Bones was by his side, Kirk pointed it out to him.

                “Go wake up Spock,” he ordered. The ship’s doctor rushed off immediately. It didn’t take long before the smaller ship was portside. Kirk approached the rail and waved. A few officers on the other side waved back, the rest were moving things and setting something up.

                Their captain, a rather chubby and sunburned man, approached his own ship’s rail. “Hello!” he called, “What vessel is this?”

                “This is the USS Enterprise!” Kirk shouted back, smile bright, “And her acting Captain James T. Kirk! To who am I speaking?”

                The man smiled when he heard his name. “Captain Kirk!” he greeted with a little flourishing hand movement, “Officer Charles Glassbury! It’s an honor to finally make your acquaintance!”

                Spock had just arrived. He stood by his captain, and Bones stood by him. “What can we do for you?” Kirk asked Officer Glassbury.

                “Actually, son, I was wondering what we could do for you,” the red faced man said, “Are you on your way back to Star Fleet?” When Kirk said yes, the man nodded. “Would you like us to take anyone back with us? Or deliver a message, perhaps? It should only take us four months to return home. How long will your voyage take?”

                “Six months left,” Kirk replied, “Actually, when you get back, could you tell Admiral Marcus that we’ve captured the fugitive he wanted?”

                “Of course!” Glassbury replied, “Which fugitive?”

                “Khan Noonien Singh,” Kirk replied, noticing a few members of Glassbury’s crew stopping their tasks to look at him. Clearly they knew about Khan too. And judging from Glassbury’s grimace, so did he.

                “Do you want us to take him back?” he asked, “I’ve heard Marcus wants him as soon as possible for the noose. Might be on his good side to return him ahead of schedule!”

                Kirk frowned. He saw Spock looking at him. Shaking his head, Kirk thought about the consequences. Khan would kill everyone on that ship. He trusted him… It would be a massive betrayal to just up and leave him to somebody else. Especially after the talk they had… He knew Khan wouldn’t do anything stupid with his crew, but he had no guarantee for the crew on the other ship. He couldn’t risk that. And he and Khan were kind of friends now. He wanted to help him. It only seemed right.

                “No,” he finally said, “I think it would be best if he stays with a crew he’s familiar with. He was very testy and on edge when he first joined us. I’d rather not test him again with a new batch of Officers.”

                Glassbury didn’t look too convinced by his answer, but he didn’t argue with him. “Fair enough,” was his last word and he and his crew took off. Kirk watched them go.

                “USS Wingate…” Kirk muttered, watching the fancy black lettering get further and further away. Scowling, Kirk turned to Spock. “Wake everybody up. Let’s keep making progress.”

                It was obvious how much faster the little ship was. By the time Kirk’s crew was up and about the Wingate was just a small blip on the water. It made him angry that his ship was so large and heavy.

                Spock was by his side when the boat finally started moving. Still frowning, Kirk said, “Take the wheel. I’m gonna go give Khan something to eat.” Spock nodded and Kirk hurried down to the brig.

                He handed Khan his tray. “You’re not joining me?” Khan asked, looking surprised up at the Captain.

                Kirk huffed. “I’m not hungry yet. I wanna get some distance covered between where we are and our destination.” He could see that Khan knew something was up. Kirk was honestly surprised he wasn’t asking him about it. “Sorry… Maybe later we can talk. Now’s just not a good time.” He felt like he needed to apologize. Why? It wasn’t like he was canceling a date. Why did he feel so guilty about bailing on Khan?

                Khan nodded his head, blinking slow and making Kirk feel uneasy. “Understood,” he said.

                Kirk wasn’t sticking around today. He felt like if he looked at Khan anymore he was going to say something he shouldn’t. He didn’t like that slow blink. It made Khan seem like a big cat. More of a predator than he already was.

                He practically hopped up the steps in one go and got back to the wheel. He let Spock go eat some food and remained at his post for four hours straight. He only let himself leave when Bones’ nagging became too much for him. Apparently not eating after sustaining an injury to the face was a no-no. He had tried just grabbing a slightly squishy apple and going back, but his doctor was having none of that.

                “Go sit and eat with Khan,” Bones said, pushing a tray of food into his hands. Kirk made a face at him. “It’s the only time I can guarantee you’ll actually eat, so just go do it.”

                Kirk was a little surprised when Bones said that. As he walked down the stairs he thought on that. This had been his steadiest month of eating in ages. He was just always too distracted or too busy to take the time out to eat on a set schedule. He laughed. Bones must be so grateful for Khan joining their party. He finally had a way to keep his Captain plump and nourished.

                Kirk wailed on one cell and one cell only as he walked to Khan. His favorite prisoner was sitting on the bench with his robe wrapped around his shoulders. “Hey!” Kirk said, pulling up is chair, “Nice blanket.”

                Khan smiled. “I didn’t save any of my food to eat with you,” he said, “I feel as though we have disturbed the natural order.”

                As he chewed on his food, Kirk grinned. “Nah,” he said, playing along, “We’d only disturb some sort of order if we started making out or fucking or something like that.” Khan laughed. “You know, good-guy, bad-guy order. Some sort of rule against sleeping with each other.”

                “Pity.” Kirk nearly choked.

                Sitting straight up, almost knocking his tray off his lap, Kirk spit, “Excuse me!?” All he got for an answer was a smug grin from his most favorite prisoner in the world. His absolute favorite. The one he didn’t want to punch in the face right now. The one he wasn’t considering tackling to the ground and stripping naked. The one with the oh so punchable face. That one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know if there's any blatant spelling errors.


	9. Good Butt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been away from this so long. I'm back at University and it's taking a toll on my motivation for anything... I'm honestly lucky if I finish a homework assignment... It's ridiculous.

 

                Kirk still hadn’t told Khan about their little visit from the Wingate the other day. Actually, the other week by this point. He didn’t know how Khan would take the news that he was wanted for the noose so badly. He would take comfort knowing he would be killed before his crew, Kirk thought. Khan seemed like that kind of person. He really should just tell him…

                Khan was still working on the ship with the other members of the crew. It seemed as though he didn’t prefer any one member’s company over another. (Unless you counted the captain, who he very much seemed to like.) He worked with whoever needed the help. Except Scotty. Even Kirk knew letting him see that was a terrible idea. Most of the time, though, Khan was helping with more of the Klingon stuff.

                He had tried showing the Captain some of what he had translated, but the fact that Khan couldn’t actually speak the words, just read the writing, made it difficult. Kirk was not a stupid man by any means, but trying to understand that the word was another word without knowing the specific word confused him. He ended up just looking at Khan, listening to his voice, and smiling whenever he looked at him to see if he was listening. Kirk hadn’t forgotten Khan’s teasing about sleeping with him. He would hold him to that one word forever. And so, a little not-so-subtle flirting came from the captain the entire week.

                Khan huffed. “Kirk, you’re staring again,” he said, turning to frown at him.

                “Can I help it if you’re so pretty?” Kirk asked, clearly teasing. His grin was wide enough to reach his ears.

                Khan huffed again. “You’re such an infant,” he said, looking back at the slab from the Klingon ship. “Do you actually want to know what this says or are you just using this as an excuse to ogle me?”

                “Both?” Khan’s scowl said ‘I don’t believe you’ so hard it made Kirk laugh. Poking at Khan’s arm, Kirk said, “You said you wanted to sleep with me. So I’m just testing the waters here.”

                “Can you not tell when I’m joking?” Khan asked. Now Kirk’s grin was just as wide as it was a minute ago.

                “I can, actually,” he said, scooting closer to his prisoner, “You weren’t.” Now Khan was looking at the slab again. Kirk almost saw a flush of color on those pale cheeks. It was enough for him to consider this a victory.

                Spock was at the wheel, Kirk could see him looking at him. “I should probably go back to my post,” he said, pushing himself up by his knees. Looking at Khan, who finally decided to stop staring at the slab, Kirk said, “Don’t think about my butt too much while I’m gone.”

                Khan laughed. “Not a problem,” he said, “It’s not that great anyway.”

                “You don’t mean that and you know it,” Kirk said, pouting like an unhappy child. “I mean, come on, look at this,” he said, twisting and turning and patting his rump. He ended by making a hissing sound as he touched it, “Perfection.” Khan rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing.

                Kirk sighed and leaned a little to look at Khan’s backside. It was kind of hard to tell with Khan sitting like he was, but if he had to give him a number out of ten he’d go with at least a nine. Not as good as his own, but certainly nothing to sniff at.

                Kirk beamed when he noticed Khan was looking at him again. He looked annoyed.

                Patting him on the head, Kirk said, “Mine’s better.” And he walked back to the wheel.

                When he got back, Spock asked what Khan had found out from the Klingon objects. Kirk had only vaguely been listening to him, so he bullshitted his answer to Spock. Not being a very efficient Captain, was he?

                “Sorry Spock,” he said, sheepish and red in the face. His first mate rolled his eyes and went to speak with Khan on his own. Kirk couldn’t help but laugh at that. He really was an inefficient captain.

                Kirk was honestly a little surprised when Uhura came to stand with him. He had a feeling she had a reason for it. She didn’t just up and come stay with him out of the kindness of her heart. She was a devious woman. He knew her far too well.

                “What is it lieutenant?” he asked, the silence eating away at him worse than any glare Khan had sent his way.

                “Your nose seems to be healing well, Captain,” she replied, watching Spock and Khan. Kirk was watching them too, only occasionally glancing at her to be sure she wasn’t going to stab him. What was her game?

                “Yeah…” he mumbled, watching Khan and Spock lift something. Khan’s bum was definitely a nine. Almost perfect. But no one had a butt as perfect as his.

                Uhura hummed for a moment. “Spock’s planning on proposing when we get home,” she said. Kirk looked at her, startled by what she said.

                “How did you…?”

                She made a face at him. “He may be a genius, but he’s not perfect at keeping secrets…”

                “Kind of like you,” she said, turning her whole body to face him. Kirk swallowed. What secret? What was he hiding? He was so panicked he didn’t even remember. “Captain, why didn’t you tell Bones that Khan was the one who broke your nose?” Shit. That secret.

                Kirk grimaced. “It, uh…” She was giving him her infamous ‘don’t you bullshit me’ look. He was sweating. “It was my fault,” he said after swallowing three times. She tilted her head and rested her hand on the rail in front of him.

                “How?”

                “I…” Kirk exhaled slowly. He had to think about what he said here. He couldn’t tell her that Khan was planning on running when they got back, could he? Would she understand? Would she have him locked up for not telling someone? Would she figure out he was starting to want to help him?

                “I kinda antagonized him,” he said, “It’s no biggy. Honest.” She frowned at him. “Look, Uhura, I ran down and started yelling at him in the middle of the night… I probably freaked him out and he just reacted on instinct.” Now she rolled her eyes.

                “I doubt he would punch you after he heard you screaming at him. He’s been here long enough to know your voice,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “Were you teasing him again?”

                Kirk blinked. “What? No…” He was startled by the question. Did he really tease Khan to the point he would get angry? “Has he looked like he was ready to it me when I’ve teased him before?”

                Uhura shrugged. “Either smack you upside the head or rip your clothes off. Usually it’s between the two.” Kirk couldn’t hold in the nervous laugh that he let out.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave reviews. If I misspelled things, please let me know. My spell check probably didn't catch it all.


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